This was a triumph.
Could it get better than great video projection, top song writing, dinosaurs, bass players dressed as moths and David Attenborough's 'Life On Earth' rendered into a non-stop 55 minutes of sensory overload?
It couldn’t really.
Dave Cooke, for one, is a multi-talented individual. Not content with being a humble ceramic artist knocking up anatomically precise models for exhibitions by day he also has a distinguished track record of exceptional pop tunes like "Paul" and "Blackout Boy" with LANDSPEED LOUNGERS and "Weather Girl" with BEING 747. And now he is setting out to present this sparkling multi-media show for learners and thrill seekers of all ages.
Steve and Paul Morricone (two more multi-talents) bring muscular drums and bass, extra vocals, pre-recorded voice-over, flute, Moog, dressing up-as-a-moth and professional video creation. Plus their considerable theatrical presence on stage.
With Cooke to one side of the central video screen, and henchmen to the other the history of the earth is compressed into a year of musical narrative. We're led from early proteins (way before amoeba, of course, but still near the end of the notional year) to a cliff-hanger ending where chattering humans are poised on the edge of a critical choice between nurture and total destruction. 14 chapters evolve through "The Microscopic Universe" to "The Power of Speech".
Each chapter has some spoken detail, a luxurious splurge of cunning, fast moving and sometimes funny video and - and this is the secret - a thoroughly fine rock and roll tune that stands up on it's own hind legs. There is no kids TV rock-emulation nonsense here - this is the real stuff. And on the content side, the narration and lyrics make no concession to the dumbing down brigade ("first we get the lampreys, an armour-plated proto-fish" he sings). The kids are reported to be loving it when they take the show into schools. I'm not surprised. As someone who taught in schools for many years, I would wholeheartedly recommend the thing as a very cool bit of science department evangelism.
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On this first hearing (for me) songs like "Milk" and "Shake Your Backbone" leap out. Up-tempo, dance-inducing stuff with choruses to get the house screaming to. "Lords of the Air" uses Cooke's genius for a melody and the Morricones' juggernaut substrate keeps things roaring along whenever the rough stuff, like geological splendour, boiling magma or asteroid attack turn up.
Billed (tonight) at the end of a night of Olde Time Burlesque at the world-famous Brudenell Social Club (don’t ask, I came for the band) this performance got huge and protracted cheers. If anyone had been glumly expecting well-meaning worthiness, the reality turned out to be a huge rock and roll party, with brains. It was enormous fun.
www.amoebatozebra.co.uk
www.wrathrecords.co.uk/abeing.htm
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